There will be no bowl game for the Bulls in 2013. USF’s 23-10 loss to Memphis on Saturday night in Tampa dropped the Bulls to 2-7 and made them ineligible to qualify for a postseason bowl.
Until four minutes left in the game, the score was close at 6-3. Memphis and USF combined for 24 points in the final minutes of the game.
USF entered the game after 16 days off following the Halloween night loss to Houston. Despite the loss that night, the Bulls were riding a wave of enthusiasm because of the play of true-freshman Mike White.
In his debut, White threw for 311 yards and a pair of touchdowns. On Saturday, White struggled to make it over the 100-yard mark and threw four interceptions.
White added a 32-yard touchdown to Andre Davis with under a minute left. At that point the game has been out of reach.
After failing to connect on two field goals in the first half, Marvin Kloss hit a 28-yard kick to cut the Memphis lead to 6-3. But that was as close as the Bulls would get.
Late in the fourth quarter, the Tigers marched the ball down the field 59 yards. Running back Brandon Hayes ran it in for the touchdown from five yards out. The score made it 13-3 and put the game out of reach.
After White’s second interception of the game the Tigers added a third field goal by Jake Elliott to increase their lead. Moments later another interception by White was returned for a touchdown by Bobby McCain.
With the interception, White became the fourth Bulls’ quarterback this season to have an interception returned for a score.
Memphis held a 6-0 lead after a lackluster first half where both teams managed over 100 yards of offense.
Memphis’ Elliott hit both field goal attempts in the opening thirty minutes. His second was 56 yards and needed an extra bounce off the crossbar to go through.
Kloss, who like Elliott is a semifinalist for the Groza Award for best kicker in the country, failed to convert on his two field goal attempts. Both kicks from 45 and 55 yards went wide.
In the first half, the USF defense was able to bottle up the Memphis running game and keeping them in long yardage situations. As a result, the Tigers were only able to convert one-out-of-six third downs.
The Bulls could not convert the five punts into opportunities on offense. USF got into the red zone only once in the first half and fumbled the ball, losing possession.
Featured image courtesy of USF Athletics.
